


Not a Chocobo

by avianscribe



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Status Effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-21 10:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14283228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avianscribe/pseuds/avianscribe
Summary: The bros go hunting to replenish their gil... and get a little more than they bargained for, when Prompto decides to rescue a cute thing.





	1. Chapter 1

The hunt looked easy enough.

"They sure they wanna pay six thousand gil for this?" Prompto asked, leaning against the Meldacio caravan and eyeing the flyer for the hunt. "It's just a bunch of birds. We've taken out cockatrices before."

"These are not cockatrices," Ignis said. He leaned forward in his plastic lawn chair, leafing through a reference on Cleigne fauna. "The regalisk and kingatrice are much greater both in size and in aggression. And they're nesting. We'll have to proceed with caution."

In the next chair, Noctis resisted the impulse roll his eyes, and smiled fondly instead. Ignis gave the same advice before every hunt, but he was the Prince's Advisor; it was his job to be Noct's caution.

"It looks like they're weak to fire magic," Ignis continued. "The adults, anyway. The chicks – regaltrices? – are resistant."

"Sounds familiar," Gladio said. He rubbed the back of his head with one hand and leaned back. His chair creaked under him. "Weren't the regular chickatrices that way, too?"

"Yeah," Prompto said.

"But we're out of our best curatives," Ignis said. "We only have five basic potions and a handful of other things..."

"And not enough gil to stock up," Gladio added. "We barely had enough for this caravan."

"Yeah, well... that's why we're taking a hunt in the first place, isn't it?" Prompto said, and sighed.

"So we'd better make this quick, and do our best not to get injured," Gladio said.

"Here, Noct," Ignis handed him a bundle of empty magic flasks. "Better be prepared. We can locate some elemental reservoirs if need be."

Noctis looked down at the empty flasks and sighed. Making magic was draining. But if it would help them, it was worth it. "Welp, better get to work," he said.

 

# # #

 

Of course it was raining.

And the nesting birds were just as aggressive as Ignis had predicted.

And they spit poison.

And there was more than one group of them – several kingatrices, surrounded by small harems of regalisks, scattered across the plateau.

Gladio and Ignis talked Noctis out of rushing in, and convinced him to let them tackle one group at a time – try to surprise them, so they weren't all fighting back at once.

It was a sound strategy.

It went wrong almost immediately.

They targeted a small group on the very edge of the plateau. But as soon as Noctis launched his first round of fire magic, the birds scattered, shrieking, and before they knew it, the entire plateau was a great undulating sea of giant birds – some of them burning. The four companions tried to stay close to each other and not get separated, but in the commotion, it was practically impossible. A few dodges, ducking out of the way of giant, panicked chickens, and Noctis lost sight of both Ignis and Gladio.

At least he managed to stay close to Prompto. He traded the fire magic for a polearm and launched himself at the nearest regalisk, covered by Prompto's timely fire. One down, Noctis pulled back to his friend's side again.

Then he felt a tug at the armiger. Someone had taken out a potion. Already. That did not bode well. "Prompto! We gotta find Ignis and Gladio, fast, or we're dead meat!" He scanned the wall of birds around them, and from the corner of his eye saw Prompto doing the same.

"I can't see them!" Prompto said, then shrieked as a regalisk swiped his chest with a well-aimed claw, slicing through to his skin. It was deep; Noctis could see the blood welling up under the shreds of Prompto's tank top, and he pulled a potion from the armiger and tossed it over to his friend. Prompto popped it over his chest, then leveled his gun at another regalisk as it ran by. Noctis managed to get his own two swipes in before it fled into the melee and another ran towards them.

They kept this up for some minutes, striking at whatever bird happened to be nearest. It was hard to tell which birds they'd managed to injure and which were still at full fighting strength, they were moving around so much. Eventually, the flock milled away from them and they took a couple quick breaths (and got in a quick fist bump) before a huge bird – one of the kingatrices – broke away from the flock and sprinted towards them, wings mantled and feathers flared, flanked by a pair of the regalisks. The birds warbled menacingly.

Prompto backed up and made an anxious sound. Noctis let his polearm go and grabbed a magic flask to replace it. He took careful aim, then lobbed his magic towards the towering kingatrice and it burst in a blaze of fire. The spell quickly caught the beast's feathers, and the kingatrice shrieked, flapping its wings, which only fanned the flames. It caught the royalisks, too, and sent them skittering away.

"Yes!" he said, and pumped his fist.

But then he felt another potion pulled from the armiger – and another. Then Gladio's voice boomed over the commotion: "Retreat!"

Noctis growled in frustration; he was just getting the hang of this! But they were down to a single potion, and had so many of the birds still left to fight. Then he saw Gladio emerging from the tumult, supporting Ignis. He saw Ignis's face, pallid and strained looking. And behind them, another knot of the large birds, riled and charging.

Gladio was moving as quickly as he could, Ignis doing his best to keep pace. Noctis ran their way, and pulled Ignis's other arm over his shoulder to help.

Prompto came running behind them, and Noctis did a double-take; his friend's arms were full of black fluff.

"Go! Go go go!" he yelled, and they took off as quickly as Ignis allowed.

Once they got away from the nests the birds lost interest and turned back. The four of them took refuge behind a pile of boulders. Gladio and Noctis lowered Ignis to the ground. Ignis murmured his thanks.

"Man, those are NOTHING like those cockatrices we hit before!" Prompto said, coming around the stones with his burden. "I don't care how much the same they look."

"Twice as big, and ten times as mean-tempered," Gladio grumbled, pulling out an antidote and tossing it to Ignis. Ignis almost missed the bottle, a measure of how poorly he must be feeling. He still caught it, unstoppered the bottle and downed the contents. He looked better almost immediately.

Noctis breathed a sigh of relief. Then he turned and found himself staring into the blinking black eyes of the bird that filled Prompto's lap.

"Prompto," Noctis said, squinting, "what is that?"

"Oh, this?" Prompto laughed nervously, petting the black fluff. "Isn't it the spitting image of that little black chocobo – that egg we found and took to Wiz?"

Noctis remembered all right; that particular quest had nearly gotten him gored by a voretooth. But it had been one of Prompto's favorite missions. They'd saved the egg. The chick... had been a lot smaller than this thing.

"He was out there with those royalisks," Prompto was saying. "I couldn't just leave him there. Could I, little guy?" Prompto scritched the bird on the back of its head.

"Where was he exactly?" Noctis said.

"He was near the ones you fried," Prompto said. "You had a close call, didn't you little guy?" Then he gave Noctis a mock-scolding look and said "You should be more careful."

"What about you?" Noctis asked. "Did I get you, too?"

Prompto laughed, still scritching the bird. "No, 'course not! I'm too fast."

"You're covered with soot," Ignis said. "Make sure you get that off before getting in the car. And brush that bird off, too, if it's coming with us."

Prompto looked down at himself, holding his arms out. Sure enough, the insides of his arms were smeared with black from his hands to his shoulders. "Oh yeah," he said with a laugh, and swiped at the soot ineffectually.

The bird in Prompto’s lap shuddered, fluffing and then flattening its feathers, and more soot fell away. Its plumage under the soot gleamed orange. Prompto, face like a stunned fish, lifted a tentative hand and wiped some of the soot from the bird's crown. The feathers on the front of its head gleamed blue and bright.

"Ah, guys," Prompto said, "Iiii don't think this is a chocobo..."

It blinked at him, opened its beak, and shrieked.

It was nothing like a _kweh_.

Before Prompto or any of them could react, the regaltrice head-butted him, bowled him over, and bounced on his chest a couple times before running over his face and away over the crest of the plateau.

Pretty soon they heard noises of other birds, raucous and angry, and getting closer.

"Time to get out of here," Gladio said.

"Agreed," Ignis said, face grim.

They both started away.

"Let's go, Prompto," Noctis said. Teasing Prompto about rescuing every cute thing no matter what it was could wait. He was about to follow the others, but Prompto didn't respond. Noctis turned to see him flat on his back staring at the sky. "Prompto?"

Prompto lifted his hands above his face and stared at them. Then lowered them again. Then he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. He shook his head, and covered half his face with a hand.

Not good.

The sounds of angry birds were getting closer.

"Noct! Prompto!" Gladio boomed. "Better hustle!"

"C'mon, Prom. That thing didn't hurt you, did it?" Noctis started towards Prompto and held out a hand to help him up. Instead of grabbing his hand, Prompto summoned his gun from the Armiger.

That… didn't seem right.

But then, to Noctis's relief, Prompto staggered to his feet.

Good. Noctis glanced back to Ignis and Gladio, who were still trotting away. "Hold up, guys!" Noctis yelled to them, then turned and found himself staring into the barrel of Prompto’s Calamity.

Noctis ducked, and only his fast reflexes saved him. The gun fired at where his face had been just moments before.

"Hey! What gives?" Noctis said, but he was pretty sure he knew.

Prompto's face was panicked. His eyes looked unfocused, but that wouldn't help Noctis much if Prompto managed to connect a shot at this range.

"Ignis! Could use a remedy here!" … he started to say.

He managed "Ignis" before Prompto swung his gun arm and fired again. And again.

Pain. White, burning, through the thick part of his thigh. Through his shoulder.

His words dissolved into a scream. He fell backwards and landed heavily, knocking the breath out of him. He struggled to inhale. Struggled to push himself off the ground. His left arm wasn't working right. Every movement sent fire up his leg.

He finally caught a breath. He let it out again with a ragged whimper.

He barely registered that Prompto was standing over him. Barely registered his gun arm lifting to take another shot.

Barely registered a huge, muscled form tackle Prompto to the ground.

Barely registered the feel of an arm under his shoulders; crisp leather gloves inspecting him. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

Something was whining.

No, he was whining.

Astrals, it hurt.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is inspired by a couple of the hunts you can get in Meldacio Hunter HQ. The regaltrices really are adorable, until they bounce you into Confusion.


	2. Chapter 2

Ignis turned as soon as Noctis called his name… just in time to see the flash of Prompto's gun firing twice.

"Gladio!" he said, and he didn't need to say more; the Shield was already sprinting back. Ignis ran, too, his own discomfort forgotten, mentally scrambling through their ethereal supply for curatives.

Noctis fell backwards hard and Ignis cursed his legs for being too slow to catch him. Prompto raised his gun again and dread rose in Ignis's gut, but then Gladio was there, tackling the gunner to the ground before he could do more damage. The gun dissolved into blue sparks, back into the armiger.

Ignis dropped to Noctis's side. The prince’s face was contorted with pain, and the sounds he was making left no doubt that he hurt. Ignis could see the entry points -- shoulder, thigh -- and the blood pooling underneath him. Ignis tried to lift the prince to a sitting position, but Noctis moaned and went limp. Ignis swallowed his alarm. His first-aid training kicked in, helpfully eclipsing the panic that threatened to rise and freeze him.

He pulled out a knife and quickly cut the trouser leg away from the thigh wound, and the shirt away from the shoulder, and assessed what he saw while gathering supplies from the armiger.

Entry wounds, perhaps exit wounds... Blood loss… concussion, if he'd get his head too hard in the fall… Shock was definitely a concern… And whether or not the bullets needed to be removed, they needed to stop the bleeding right away. They could only tell whether bones had been affected with an x-ray...

They had no hi potions or elixirs. What had they been thinking? That they were just going after a flock of birds? How could they have been so foolish and shortsighted? He'd even looked the creatures up. Had the book said anything about the chicks being able to inflict Confusion? They were lucky they even _had_ a remedy.

Before he could beat himself up further, he shattered their last potion over Noctis so healing could at least begin, and quickly wrapped bandages over the healing wounds for good measure. A single potion was unlikely to be enough.

He heard another shattering vial, and Prompto gave a sputtering gasp behind him.

"Back with us, Sunshine?" Gladio rumbled.

"Wh-- what--" Prompto sputtered, and in the sudden stillness that followed, Ignis imagined that Prompto was taking in what had happened.

They didn't have much time to think about it.

"Gladio, we need to get Noct to the car," Ignis said over growing noise of angry (and very large) birds. "Quickly."

Then Gladio was at his side, slipping his arms under Noct's shoulders and knees and lifting him effortlessly, then taking off over the rocks. Noctis was limp, and blessedly unconscious for the painful jog. At least it wasn't far.

Ignis turned to Prompto, ready to urge him to follow -- but the look on Prompto's face watching Gladio carry his best friend away stopped Ignis cold.

"I did that…? It was me…" Prompto said, his voice watery and thin. He blinked rain from his eyes (was it rain?) and looked at Ignis. His crumpled expression just about broke Ignis's heart.

Ignis took a deep breath and beckoned with a gesture. "Come along, quickly… we'll be up to our necks in birds if we don't follow them now."

Prompto gave a shuddering sigh and stood, then broke into a jog. Ignis shot a quick glance around and, seeing no birds yet, followed him.

 

# # #

 

The ride to Lestallum was long and silent. No one had the heart to turn the music on. Noctis lay unconscious across the back seat, his head resting on Gladio's thigh. Gladio was doing his best to keep Noctis comfortable and safe -- tricky, when the best position for his wounds was horrible for seat belts. Prompto huddled in the passenger seat, leaning against the window, staring disconsolately at the rain.

Ignis gripped the steering wheel so hard his gloves squeaked. He took the switchbacks down from the Vesperpool at a speed that was likely inadvisable, and had to remind himself more than once that a car accident due to excessive speed (in the rain, no less) would only make matters worse.

He still made it to Lestallum in record time.

The ER at the hospital in Lestallum was bright, white, and smelled carefully clean. When Gladio carried Noctis through the door, the two of them were quickly whisked away by the competent staff, leaving Ignis to sort through the registration paperwork. He completed it all with his customary efficiency, and turned to find a nurse waiting to guide him to his charge.

Then there were x-rays and examinations, treatments with elixirs, and relief that bones were sound and no surgery was necessary... Ignis didn't even realize that Prompto had not followed until Noctis was properly admitted and the hospital staff wheeled his bed, IVs and all, towards his assigned room.

"Gladio, have you seen Prompto?" He asked as the two of them followed the gurney down the hall.

"He was with you when we came in, wasn't he?"

"So I thought… but then I was occupied. I thought he followed you."

Gladio shook his head, frowning. "They got us back here too quick."

Ignis pursed his lips.

Ignis made sure Noctis was properly set up in his room -- he had yet to awaken, which was concerning, but at least he was getting professional care now, and Gladio was prepared to stay with him -- and then Ignis made his way back to the emergency waiting room.

The room was tensely quiet, only interrupted by murmured conversations, occasional outbursts from impatient children and soft sounds of discomfort. Ignis scanned the room, but it took a moment for him to discover where Prompto had ensconced himself – in a back corner, elbows leaning on knees, fingers lightly threaded together, and head bowed so low his blonde forelock almost brushed his wrists. He was still wearing his shredded tank top, and he was still filthy with rain-drenched soot.

Ignis winced and cursed himself for not noticing Prompto's absence sooner. He threaded his way through the waiting room chairs to Prompto, and cleared his throat, not wanting to startle him. "Here you are," Ignis said.

Prompto didn't look up.

Ignis hesitated. "They have Noct set up in a room. He was still unconscious when I left, but he's been treated and his prognosis is good. He should recover well."

Prompto gave a shuddering gasp. His fingers knotted together more tightly and he lowered his head until it rested on his clenched hands. His shoulders started shaking.

Ignis sat immediately next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Prompto, he'll be fine."

"He wouldn't be here if I hadn't..." Prompto whispered. He inhaled and his breath hitched. He... was crying. Not knowing what to do, Ignis rubbed Prompto's shoulder in a way he hoped was comforting.

"Prompto," he said gently, "none of us blame you. It was--"

"Ignis, I shot my best friend." Prompto looked up at him then. His eyes were red-rimmed, puffy, and anguished. Ignis pulled his hand away.

"It could have happened to any of us," he said.

Prompto snorted and looked away. "Yeah, well, it didn't," he said, "because you guys aren't the idiot who picked up a charred regaltrice thinking it was a chocobo chick."

Prompto's voice was getting much louder than was strictly appropriate for a waiting room. Ignis didn't mention it, and instead kept his own voice low and measured. "We all know you have a kind heart, and we--"

"Ignis, just stop," Prompto said, resting his head on his wrists again, voice thick with tears. "I know you're trying to make me feel better, but right now..."

Ignis's phone chimed. He sighed and pulled it out of his pocket.

 

**Gladiolus (7:12pm):** Sleeping Beauty is awake

**Gladiolus (7:12pm):** He's asking for you

**Gladiolus (7:12pm):** Prompto too

**Gladiolus (7:13pm):** Better get up here

 

Ignis sighed again. "I'm sorry to say that we've been summoned," he said. "Are you coming?"

Prompto didn't answer right away. Perhaps couldn't; his shoulders were still shaking.

Then Prompto's phone made its "kweh" sound. He didn't move. The phone "kweh"-ed again from his pocket, and again, and he finally lifted his head, pulled his phone out of his pocket with one hand, and wiped at his eyes with his other. Ignis glanced at the screen over Prompto's shoulder.

 

**HRM Noct (7:16pm):** wanna see u

**HRM Noct (7:17pm):** get in here u nerd

**HRM Noct (7:17pm):** royal decree

 

Prompto made a soft sound.

"Shall we, then?" Ignis said.

"I guess I have no choice..." he said, and sighed, and then stood.

Ignis led him through the maze of corridors until they stood outside Noctis's room. Prompto hesitated at the threshold. Ignis paused with him. Prompto took a deep breath as if steeling himself. Ignis raised an eyebrow at him, and he gave a soft sigh, then nodded. Ignis pushed the door open and they went in.


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Noctis noticed was the warmth. The last thing he remembered was cold – cold and wet. And pain. But now he was warm and dry. The pain was still there, in his shoulder and his leg, but was more of a smoldering ember than an inferno. He was soon awake enough to recognize the familiar dull throb of post-elixir healing – the leftover ache of his body mending itself faster than it could on its own. He blinked his eyes open.

The window was dark and the lights were dim – only a long fluorescent glowed over a sink – but he still squinted at the brightness.

He must have made some kind of noise, because he heard a shifting of fabric and soon Gladio's face popped into view, leaning over him. Gladio's expression was a strange combination of relief and fatigue and... something else Noctis couldn't identify.

"You awake, Princess?"

Noctis gave a little groan. "I could have you court-martialed for calling me that," he said. His voice was scratchy and he realized he was thirsty.

Gladio snorted. "Not likely," he said. "Not until you're feeling better, at any rate." He dragged a chair closer to the bed.

Feeling better... well, Noctis wasn't in as much pain, but he was bone-weary. His arm felt heavy when he lifted it to rub at his eyes. And when he moved his other arm, he felt the tug of an IV in the crook of his elbow. He shifted to sit up, but Gladio put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

"Here," he said. "You lost a lot of blood and you need to take it easy. Doctor's orders." Gladio found the button that raised the head of the bed so Noctis was sitting up. "You need anything?"

"Water," Noctis said, and Gladio grabbed a large hospital mug with a straw off the table (within easy reach, Noctis realized ruefully) and handed it to him. He sipped at it, and glanced around the room.

"So what now?"

Gladio leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "They were able to put everything right with an elixir," he said. "They gave you a blood transfusion. You just needed to wake up, which you've done. Now they probably just want to make sure you can walk out of here without falling over from anemia. I think they have a good, iron-rich meal waiting for you when you're ready to eat." Gladio's mouth quirked into a ghost of that half-smile of his.

Noctis sipped thoughtfully at the straw of his water jug. Then he asked, "Where are the others?"

Gladio's eyebrows pinched together the way they did when he was worried. "Ignis was here, but Prompto didn't follow us in, so Iggy went to find him."

Noctis frowned.

Gladio sighed. "Prompto was in a bit of a funk the whole drive here. I think he's taking it pretty hard."

"He would," Noctis said, a sinking feeling settling in his gut. He knew Prompto had nothing to worry about. But he also knew Prompto. The memory came, unbidden, of Prompto's face, twisted with confused fear; of the gun barrel inches from Noctis's nose. He winced. "How long have I been down?"

"We've been here maybe a couple hours? And you were out for the whole drive here, so... a while."

Noctis stared into space and sipped his water again.

Gladio finally shifted. "I was supposed to let the nurse know when you woke up, so..."

"I need to see Ignis and... and Prompto, too," Noctis said quietly.

Gladio pulled his phone out of his pocket and swiped at it with a thumb. "I'll see if I can get them back up here." He finished with his phone, and then stepped out of the room.

Noctis saw his own phone sitting on the far end of bedside table and reached for it, only pulling at the IV a little before he managed to get the phone in hand. He tapped out his own messages to Prompto, and hoped they made his friend smile at least a little. Then he set his phone back on the table and leaned back in the bed. Astrals, he was tired.

 

# # #

 

Gladio returned quickly with the nurse, and then there was a bit of a bustle while he was poked and prodded and asked questions. Then there was food. A decent-sized steak, in fact. Potatoes, gravy, green beans, and a pile of wilted spinach. He tried his best not to grimace and hoped he could eat what he wanted and get the plate out of there before Ignis showed up and made him eat the greens, too.

Gladio laughed at him while he stuffed his face. He may have guessed Noctis's motivation for bolting his food so quickly. Noctis's plan didn't quite work. He was still chewing his last bite of steak when Ignis pushed open the door and entered, then held the door open for Prompto, who followed hesitantly.

Noctis didn't miss the color high on Prompto's cheekbones, nor the puffiness around his eyes. He chose to ignore it.

"Guys!" he said around his mouthful.

Ignis 'tsk'ed at him, while shooing Prompto to the sink to wash the soot still coating his arms. "Swallow your food before speaking, you know that, Your Highness," he said.

"Ignis --"

"And you'd better eat all those greens. They're high in iron, and you need it."

Noctis moaned dramatically and even Prompto managed a small smile while he dried off. Good!

Just for that smile, Noctis speared a forkful of beans and shoved them in his mouth with only a slight hesitation. He chewed as few times as he could safely get away with and swallowed them nearly whole.

"Ignis," he said, when his mouth was empty again, "how are _you_ feeling?"

Ignis's eyebrows shot up. As Noctis had suspected, his adviser had been in full triage mode and hadn't even been considering his own health. "I'm quite well, Highness," he said. "Nothing an antidote couldn't fix."

"Shouldn't you be looked over, too, since we're here?"

"I think not. I--"

Gladio gave a chuckle, stood, and wrapped a huge hand around Ignis's bicep. "C'mon, Iggy," Gladio said, leading him out the door. "You do look a little pale. Let's go get you checked out." He winked at Noctis and closed the door after them.

Prompto watched them leave, his expression almost panicked. Noctis pointedly did not look at him, and instead pushed his spinach around on his plate with his fork, trying to ignore its smell. He took a tentative bite, suppressing the urge to curl his lip at it. He shouldn't have eaten everything else first.

Prompto wasn't moving, so Noctis looked up at him.

And saw his friend looking at him, face scrunched up, tears running down his face, looking so broken Noctis couldn't bear it.

"Prom..." he said, and it was enough to break whatever was holding his friend back.

"Noct, I am so... so sorry...!" Even Prompto's voice was broken. He almost stumbled to the vacant chair by the bed and scooped Noctis's free hand up in both of his.

"Why?" Noctis asked. "It wasn't your fault."

Prompto couldn't say anything for some time. He just cried silent sobs, sniffing wetly now and then, and squeezed Noctis's hand. Noctis just let him. He pushed his greens around with his fork for a moment, then set the fork down and watched Prompto, not knowing what to say.

They sat there for some minutes, silent but for Prompto's muffled noises. When at last he seemed to calm, Noctis squeezed Prompto's hand with his own. "C'mon, we've faced worse," he said. "And I'm okay."

Prompto blinked miserably at the medical equipment surrounding them – the saline drip, the IV... and finally his eyes settled on Noctis's face. Whatever he found there, he looked away quickly, brows knotted together in worry. His face turned pink, highlighting his freckles. "Noct, I... I could have killed you. I... would never have been able to forgive myself."

Noctis bit down on his glib reply before it could leave his mouth. Teasing Prompto at the wrong time was a surefire way to get him to put all his walls up, fake his good humor, and bury his real feelings – and Noctis didn't want that this time. He didn't want Prompto pretending he was okay.

Instead, he put his free hand on Prompto's shoulder. "Look at me," he said.

Prompto reluctantly met his eyes.

"All I cared about was that you were okay. Confusion happens sometimes in battle. Ignis and Gladio got lessons dealing with it in Crownsguard training." _I did too._ "I had to watch. You know what Ignis did the first time his trainers made him try to fight while Confused?"

Prompto blinked at him.

"He thought the ceiling was a Zu and tried to take it out with his daggers. He took out some of the lights instead, and got showered in glass shards. And then his daggers fell right back down on him and sliced him up, too. Had to go to the infirmary to take care of all the cuts and glass... but they had to pin him down to give him a remedy first."

Prompto snorted and a corner of his mouth curled up.

"And Gladio..." Noctis glanced at the door, which was still closed. "He made me promise never to tell what _he_ did."

"Aww, you can't leave me hanging, dude." Prompto's voice was still hoarse from crying.

"Sorry," Noctis said. "I gave my solemn oath. But... ask him sometime about cactuar butts."

And Prompto finally smiled for real – broad and mischievous. It drained away quickly. "But... Noct... shouldn't I have had that training too? Maybe if I had, we..."

Noctis shrugged. "Gladio and Specs started their Crownsguard training when they were barely knee-high to Cor. They had _years_. You didn't have nearly as much time, and there was a lot to cover. Maybe it would have helped, maybe not. It could have been Ignis that got Confused, and we'd all have been stabbed."

Prompto didn't seem convinced. "I just..."

"Prompto."

Prompto met his eyes again.

"You're an important part of our team. And more than that, you're my friend. I wouldn't have it any other way." Then he dared a nudge to his friend's shoulder. "Just make sure it's really a chocobo next time, alright?"

Prompto groaned, and dropped his head on the bed. "I'm such a dummy, Noct, I can't believe I'm so stupid." The hospital blanket muffled his voice.

Noctis laughed. "You're the one who said it. I won't tell anyone," he said. He squeezed his friend's hands again.

Then there was a knock on the door. Prompto pulled away from him and Noctis gave a quick "come in". Gladio and Ignis entered, Gladio looking smug and Ignis looking irritated.

"Clean bill of health," Gladio said.

"I told you I was fine," Ignis said, pushing his glasses up.

"And you were, but it's always good to check." He settled into a chair under the window and spread his arms across the sill.

Ignis took one look at the greens spread across Noctis's plate and gave a long-suffering sigh, which Noctis ignored. "Gotta pee," he said, which distracted Ignis from the plate long enough for him to help Noctis navigate around his IV to get out of bed. His vision grayed a little around the edges when he got to his feet, but he stood still with Ignis's steady hand on his arm long enough for the whooshing of his blood to fade from his ears again. Then he waved Ignis off and took the few steps to the ensuite bathroom on his own.

Just as Noctis was about to pull the bathroom door closed, he heard Prompto say, "Gladio, Noct tells me I should ask you about cactuar butts."

Noctis looked up just in time to see Gladio's face go pink, and for his eyes to dart towards Noctis with a glare that promised violence. He laughed and shut the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I don't know anything about the cactuar butts either... I just thought it would be funny to have Noctis say "butt". (Anyone is welcome to speculate on what happened...)


End file.
